


The Situation on the Ground

by rexluscus



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-04
Updated: 2011-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-21 00:31:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/218935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rexluscus/pseuds/rexluscus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Natalie are all mixed up together in Pepper's head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Situation on the Ground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yetanothermask](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=yetanothermask).



> For help_japan. yetanothermask asked for Natasha/Pepper. Set after IM2 but will probably be slightly jossed by the Avengers film.

Tony hadn't said anything the first time he'd come in, expecting to find her sitting there waiting for him no doubt, and instead found her with Natalie, their heads bent close together as they studied some data in an e-mail. He'd stopped in the doorway as they'd looked up, a united front of innocence, and narrowed his eyes a little before asking if she could spare him a moment.

The next time, they'd been laughing about something as he opened the door, and as their laughter trailed off, he actually said, "When did you two get so—close all of a sudden?"

"We work together," said Pepper flatly. "Remember that? Work?"

Once he was gone, Natalie arched one of her perfect auburn eyebrows and said, "In his dreams, maybe."

Pepper laughed. She was pretty sure she'd hear about those dreams in explicit detail. He'd figured out fast that he didn't need to keep those sorts of things to himself.

Those first few months with Tony were outrageously good.

When the inevitable cool-off happened, it wasn't the pattern she was familiar with—sex slowly replaced by TV in bed, conversations growing more and more banal—no, it was more like Tony was cheating on her with Nick Fury and the rest, halfway around the world most of the time, and turning up in the hospital when he turned up at all, so that when she did see him, he was too tired or too injured to have sex. 

Sometimes, she would get a phone call instead—Tony was being treated in South Korea, or the Emirates—and then Natalie would show up at the house with two black eyes and a taped-up nose, and maybe a broken arm. Pepper honestly didn't want to know. She knew what they both did, and that at least one of them would probably die doing it. So she made Natalie (or Natasha, or whatever her name was) a cup of tea to wash down the Vicodin, put her to bed in the room where Pepper and Tony slept, and tried not to wish she could be a part of it too—this suicidal super-hero start-up, for which she was the unofficial ground crew.

And since she had become the home fire for both of them, she wasn't that surprised when Natalie came through her door at 3AM one night when Tony was gone and threw her arms around Pepper's neck, sagging with exhaustion but urgently hot and close. There was no moment of wondering whether this might be platonic. Or maybe just a tiny one, a split-second before Natalie got on with it and kissed her, hot tongue sliding confidently in, and then, just to be clear, slipping a leather-gloved hand down her back and squeezing her ass through her nightgown. 

That first time, they did it right there in the foyer. Pepper got the zipper of Natalie's catsuit down just far enough to peel it free from her breasts, which she had barely touched before Natalie pushed her away to grab a handful of her nightgown. It came up over her head and then Natalie had her laid out on the floor, her skin pebbling in the cold air, nipples tight and hard. She lifted her head and watched through the valley of her breasts as Natalie's auburn head sank between her thighs, and then there were leather-clad fingers in her cunt and a hot, frantic tongue on her clit. For fifteen minutes, Natalie tongued her and fucked her, and she came so hard she saw double, the light fixture overhead dividing and then merging as she whimpered and panted and thought about nothing else. Then Natalie straddled her face and pulled that zipper the rest of the way down, and let Pepper figure out the rest.

Later they fucked in Pepper and Tony's bed, sweaty and half-asleep, and Natalie passed out without saying a word. She stayed unresponsive until early the next afternoon. Meanwhile, Pepper made herself breakfast and wondered what she'd tell Tony. Natalie was there and he wasn't, and anyway, the two of them had become so entangled in her mind that it seemed quaint to call it "cheating." As if Tony hadn't already had her too, in all likelihood.

Natalie wasn't a talker, which Pepper appreciated. It was all she could do to get Tony to shut up. She liked having a friend who wasn't constantly seeking her reactions, as if attention were the same as love. Natalie just ate the soup Pepper made her and said "thanks." Then she opened her phone and called Nick Fury, and Pepper wandered into the other room, feeling a little let down.

A few minutes later, Natalie came out, phone back in her pocket. "So," she said, sitting down next to Pepper. "What do you think he'll do?"

Pepper laughed. "Weep for joy? Ask if he can join in? I doubt he'll be mad, if that's what you're wondering."

"Yeah, I guess it was." Natalie put her feet up. She smiled, an uncomplicated little smile that didn't come out much. She shut her eyes. "Okay. Good."


End file.
